Confusion over Hackett’s role at Westpac

Grant Hackett will be commentating for Nine Network at the London Olympics later this year.
Photo: Louise Kennerley

by
Sally Rose

Westpac Private was still inviting clients to a pre-Olympics function with its former brand ambassador Grant Hackett nearly three months after it claims his role as a brand ambassador for the bank, where he remains an executive, ended.

Mr Hackett told a journalist from The Australian Financial Review on May 17 that his brand ambassador contract “had just been renewed a couple of months ago for a further three years".

Two weeks earlier, on May 1, Westpac private clients received invitations to an “exclusive Olympic cocktail evening with Grant Hackett and [former Australian rugby union captain] John Eales". At the event, guests were told Hackett was unavailable to attend.

Mr Hackett has been the subject of damaging media reports about his private life since his split with his wife early last month.

By May 31, Westpac was saying the ambassador contract with Mr Hackett had expired in February and not been renewed.

A bank spokesman said the misunderstanding was a “case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand was doing" within Westpac.

He suggested Mr Hackett was under the misapprehension that his celebrity sports agent, International Quarterback, had re-signed the brand ambassador contract. The ambassador contract is managed by the marketing department and negotiated on his behalf by International Quarterback. His contract as a full-time employee is separate.

Mr Hackett had been a Westpac brand ambassador since 1998 and, since late 2008, has also been a full-time employee of the bank. He still heads Westpac’s sport and entertainment division Alpha.

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The Westpac spokesman said Mr Hackett had raised the issue of the workload involved as an ambassador and the “need for him to focus on his work as a senior banker with Westpac and the responsibilities that he has in that role’’.“He has since sought and received that clarification about when that contract expired," the spokesman said.

The Nine Network has confirmed that Mr Hackett will be commentating for it on the swimming at the London Olympics later this year.

But he will no longer appear at an event with Westpac chief executive Gail Kelly during the Olympics targeted at expatriate clients. Nor will Mr Hackett be hosting the winners of a cross-promotion with Visa of a trip to the London Olympics. A likely contender to step in is Eales, a Westpac ambassador himself. He will also be in London as an Australian Olympic Committee athlete liaison officer.

“All high-profile people have ups and downs in the type of attention they receive," celebrity manager Max Markson said.

As a seven-time Olympic medal winner, the value of Hackett’s brand long-term “is stronger than the current news cycle", he said.

Mr Markson has no commercial relationship with Mr Hackett or Westpac. Mr Hackett is not alone in pursuing a post-sporting career in banking. Former Olympian Kieren Perkins works for National Australia Bank while another elite swimmer, Geoff Huegill, has worked for Commonwealth Bank of Australia since failing to qualify to compete at the Olympics.